The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Army Ship Named for Black Civil War Hero

And you thought ships were in the Navy? Evidently not so.

The Major General Robert Smalls, a 314 foot-long US Army vessel was at Baltimore's Inner Harbor for Saturday's 108th Army-Navy football game. But, even its presence could not save the plebes from Navy's midshipmen.

The Robert Smalls is a logistics support vessel named after a 23 year-old slave working as a pilot on a Confederate steamer. He took over the ship in 1862 while the crew was ashore. He took the vessel and 15 other slaves and his family and surrendered to the first Union ship.

After the war, he became a major general in the SC militia and was a five-time Congressman.

Everybody Knows There are No Ships in the Army, Or Do They? --Blockade-R

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